:::::Since the picture upload today for [[1409: Query]] did fail this add is deactivated. And I got only an "Error code 3" which means: "An error returned by the MediaWiki API". I will do some tests to figure out the reason for this mishap. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 20:21, 18 August 2014 (UTC)

X11 Title Text Explanation

In my absence was it finally decided forever and always how title text explanations would be handled? I can't find a discussion in the Community Portal, if you have a link I'd be interested to come up to speed on the current editing policies. lcarsos_a (talk) 22:44, 7 January 2014 (UTC)

A BIG problem is here still that there are NO editing policies in general. I'm just following the main "feel and look". In standard explains the title text is just at the bottom of the explain, and trivia goes after transcript. You are an admin here and maybe you should talk to User:Davidy22. In general I think that X11 still needs a better layout. --Dgbrt (talk) 23:11, 7 January 2014 (UTC)

Ok. I had wondered about that. My personal policy, when I was an active editor a year ago, was once a title text explanation is longer than 2 paragraphs it should get it's own subsection. I'll have to get a dialogue started with Davidy about it once more.

So you know, the English phrase is "look and feel". I know English isn't your first language, I just wanted to correct you on that. If I tried typing in German, I'd probably embarrass myself, and you'd have to help me.

I'm happy about your latest actions here! And of course I did mix it up, it's "look and feel" and a translation of my former mistake could lead into some problems. --Dgbrt (talk) 01:13, 8 January 2014 (UTC)

Think you may have marked this as complete a smidgen early - it needed a bit of cleanup, and a few more tweaks (the joke about theology wasn't explained, really). I've done it now, though. 141.101.99.235 16:40, 10 January 2014 (UTC)

You are welcome to enhance this explain, but in general it's not incomplete any more. If you feel the explain is still incomplete just add the tag again and provide a reason. --Dgbrt (talk) 18:02, 10 January 2014 (UTC)

Eh, I got it. It was just a couple little things - the Ontological Argument joke, and such. I suppose, though, that "I had intended to do more work on it" isn't really an argument against removing it, is it? 141.101.99.235 18:26, 10 January 2014 (UTC)

And I'm very happy if you still can enhance this explain. --Dgbrt (talk) 18:30, 10 January 2014 (UTC)

I can only presume you haven't read Lovecraft, but those are the best known sealed-away gods in modern literature. Cthulhu is supposed to live in the extreme depths, Azathoth beyond time, surrounded by insane pipers. They're a far better explanation than the Harry Potter one which is far, far more tangental - it sings in a bath, and contains nothing that could escape - but you're leaving in.

I doubt there's a precise reference being made to anything in the comic, but Cthulhu and other Lovecraftian Gods are the overwhelmingly likely inspiration. Unless someone has a better explanation. I suppose one could discuss The Abyss as well. 141.101.99.235 11:27, 17 January 2014 (UTC)

I disagree, this comic contains only REAL things. This is NO horror fiction. --Dgbrt (talk) 19:58, 17 January 2014 (UTC)

The door at the bottom of the Marinas Trench is real now? James Cameron really released something on the world because he was distracted by its beautiful music? I think you've missed the actual context of the specific discussion. 141.101.99.235 11:36, 18 January 2014 (UTC)

Downtime

Next time you see errors, could you post the output of this link somewhere? Davidy²²[talk] 08:09, 22 January 2014 (UTC)

I will do so, but currently there are no problems. It's working great. --Dgbrt (talk) 08:19, 22 January 2014 (UTC)

Actually, could you get me the output to that file currently for now? And again in the future if downtime ever does occur. Davidy²²[talk] 09:13, 22 January 2014 (UTC)

Currently I'm on a leased line at a different provider than at home. But I will document my dynamic DSL connections and provide some information here soon. --Dgbrt (talk) 09:36, 22 January 2014 (UTC)

Here we are, I'm online here via "webproxy.ca" right now. My route from Germany to explainxkcd stops somewhere in Chicago (Illinois) in the US [1]:

At this time I even don't get an error message, my browser is loading... and loading... What is it? I'm reaching the US from Germany but then it stops. A Proxy from Canada works well, what the hell??? NSA or CIA or what? Maybe a Webhoster outside of the US would be better. 22:33, 25 January 2014 (UTC)~ dgbrt

Uh, it'd be nice if you could also post the results from the link I posted. We kinda need that for troubleshooting the actual server issues. And if you could do it via the setup that you suffered the server issues under, that would be helpful. Davidy²²[talk] 09:05, 26 January 2014 (UTC)

I don't think this is helpful, you just see my proxy is located in Toronto:

And uhh, I can't reach your link from home. Just because I cannot connect this site without a proxy. --Dgbrt (talk) 20:46, 26 January 2014 (UTC)

More important: My BOT will not work until this is fixed. --Dgbrt (talk) 22:22, 26 January 2014 (UTC)

Try using Google DNS. That looks like an ISP issue. Davidy²²[talk] 22:46, 27 January 2014 (UTC)

Holy crab, I'm back from a three day business trip. I did figure it out, it wasn't an ISP issue at all, it was just a remain at my local configuration attempting to avoid former problems. I was looking on this problem everywhere, but not at my own manual overwrites. Shame on me, Human Error. But this error is still much better than a BOT Error; so I'm hoping my BOT will behave on Friday again like it should do. --Dgbrt (talk) 21:50, 29 January 2014 (UTC)

My crab, ehh.. bot should perform as before. My sweet eight legged animal did fail, caused by some former chaos here. I'm hoping that future updates will perform as before, even if an update is late. --Dgbrt (talk) 23:26, 30 January 2014 (UTC)

I'm happy if I can help. And shame on me, I did forget to sign my former post.--Dgbrt (talk) 20:19, 10 February 2014 (UTC)

Undo button

The undo button gives you the version of the page prior to the edit that you hit undo on. When you disagree with one part of an edit, hitting the undo button reverts everything else as well. Don't default to the undo button unless you're absolutely sure that the entire edit is bad. Davidy²²[talk] 00:14, 19 February 2014 (UTC)

I'm using the Undo Button only when I do know what I do delete. That's similar to an update here, I'm still trying to avoid an "edit conflict" here. But some actions here don't make me happy here, I don't know if my actions here are welcome. I don't need a thanks, but the latest GIFs were done by my BOT — that main table would not work without my work. My Undo is mostly done on an another Undo without any given reason, if there was a reason I do reply in a proper manner.--Dgbrt (talk) 00:30, 19 February 2014 (UTC)

There's been a fair few cases in the past and with this particular case where you've defaulted to autoreverting an edit when the edit button would have sufficed. Disagreements need not be made personal; it is possible for a disagreement to occur without assuming insult. I track recent changes for vandalism/peacekeeping/comment signing duties and while I don't tend to interfere that often with daily happenings, I have noticed that a healthy portion of arguments have included you. Swearing isn't a strictly appropriate response to a user removing an incomplete tag or rewriting an explanation, even if you strongly disagree with it. try to avoid defaulting to arguing. Davidy²²[talk] 03:28, 19 February 2014 (UTC)

Uhh, I'm back after two days — no time... I don't know if I can check all the recent changes, but I will give a try on the most important ones. The 1331 Frequency table is the first. --Dgbrt (talk) 19:57, 21 February 2014 (UTC)

When

Hi Dgbrt. This is just a question for my personal curiosity. After seeing this edit, I started wondering whether the use of "when" in that sentence was due to you being a native German speaker. I'm asking because I follow a blog by a Dutch guy who also uses "when" all the time, in sentences where it would make more sense to use "if" instead. Does the equivalent to "when" have extra meanings in Dutch and/or German, outside of the English time-based meaning?
Cheers, Waldir (talk) 23:08, 24 February 2014 (UTC)

Hi Waldir, "if" is more a question about an issue while "when" is more about time. I'm not native English but I'm still trying to learn — Google gives me "if" as "indien" in dutch, and "when" as "wanneer". Since I do know Plattdeutsch I do know many funny misunderstandings belonging even on this simple word. A hurt in English is a pain, in Dutch it is a "pijn", but in German the word "peinlich" doesn't match this meanings at all. I'm doing mistakes on understanding languages, but I still have many fun on exploring. Don't know if (<-NOT WHEN) I did answer your question. --Dgbrt (talk) 23:46, 24 February 2014 (UTC)

Although "when" is "wenn" in German and "if" is "falls", it is very common to use "wenn" for both meanings. Therefore, many Germans (including me) tend to use "when" even whenif they mean "if". Although I don't speak Dutch, I know that it is very similar to German, so it might be the same issue. --108.162.254.196 14:57, 25 February 2014 (UTC)

Using "when" is often a false friend used by Germans, like I did before. In German "wenn" means "when", "if", and more in English; so you have to care about those different words in English. I'm still happy to learn more about the English language, in general it's believed to be more simple than German. But in my opinion this just means that English is much more precise and shorter. --Dgbrt (talk) 21:17, 25 February 2014 (UTC)

Thanks guys for the explanations, they were both enlightening and amusing! I just want to clarify that sometimes it is acceptable to use "when" in English to refer to a general condition rather than a strictly time-based one (as it seems to be the case in German), but the distinction may be subtler/stricter than in German. This answer explains it well, I think: "If you say 'when' something happens, you imply it definitely will happen, even if the precise timing is unknown. You use 'if' when (!) there's uncertainty about whether the event will happen at all." --Waldir (talk) 17:24, 26 February 2014 (UTC)

Thanks!

Hi! Despite our slight disagreement regarding the alt text explanation over "Purity", I did want to thank you for going over some of my edits and cleaning them up. The link format here is slightly different than what I'm used to, and it screwed me up. As well, I tend to overuse parenthesis. Don't feel bad about proofreading my edits - I do appreciate it.

If you're confused as to my objection over Purity, I've left a note on the talk page for that comic explaining why I feel what existed before is not sufficient. Jetman123 (talk) 13:12, 10 March 2014 (UTC)

German translation

A translation isn't easy at all, my local German page is still mostly in English. It's not easy to figure out the important tamplates, but I did some more enhancements — if the general page does work, the remaining work only belongs to translation (not easy at all).

I think we should start this soon, and because even German people do know English as well there is no need to translate it all. Sometimes just a hint gives a shot. --Dgbrt (talk) 19:05, 15 March 2014 (UTC)

Your Undo

On my talk page, you undid my deletion of a user's message. The reason I deleted the message in the first place was that it wasn't meant for me in particular, but meant to be placed in the discussion for 1351. One reason I think that this was meant to be in that discussion is because this is a) the first time metamaterials were mentioned in xkcd (as far as I know); b) the user said "can anybody link" in their message, asking anybody in particular to help. I doubt people check my talk page for a discussion of an xkcd; and c) I did not start, nor join, nor end any discussion about metamaterials and their validity.

So... I'm just asking if you consider it valid to delete it, or if, in your opinion, I should leave it there (I have already added their (exact) words to the discussion for the comic, so that is already there). greptalk22:33, 04 April 2014 (UTC)

In general a discussion should not be deleted at all; I could do the same on this topic, too. Furthermore you do invite people to discuss, so just give them a kind reply. This even could be like -> here we go for further talks. But deleting that looks like ignoring this. Your user page proposes something different. --Dgbrt (talk) 22:48, 4 April 2014 (UTC)

Ah. I understand your point of view, and I agree with it. Thanks! greptalk19:04, 05 April 2014 (UTC)

Categories for Lorenz

Hi Dgbrt

Why do you think that obvious categories should not be displayed for Lorenz? See my comment on the talk page. I agree that no input text should give rise to caregories, but what is included in the pictures should. You seem to have accepted color, but Hairy is in most stories wheras only seven panels have colour!

I would use the list below - please explain why not - preferably better than you have so far in the comments on edition or talk page. And also why you should make that ruling?

If you can explain I will stop asking about it. But as of now it was the text below I was ready to add. (I may agree to removing a few - like because the light saber is not ennough for SW...)

Hi Kynde, thanks for your question before starting an edit-war. If your read my comments at my edits you can see that I don't like this massive category block, just because many more categories had to be added when a new picture is found. Finally we would come up with a category ALL.

Most images resemble an excerpt of a former comic, this has to be explained. Even you do not avoid chaos because "Pokémon" is twice at your example. I'm looking for simple but straight forward explains.

Hi Dgbrt.I have trouble understanding this sentence that you have used before: Most images resemble an excerpt of a former comic Can you elaborate or find a different way to say the same so I can follow.

My example is a cut and paste from my former suggestions and the current - that you accept. So this explains duplicate entries. It would not be registered twice if I now how it works.

Still you have not answered my questions to why colour is ok? I belive that if everything is included by Randall so should it here. But that is where we disagree.

Is there a discussion/rule about when to include a category? And if we disagree who should then decide - are you a moderator of this wiki?

Not to include Hairy is weird! Just saying... Kynde (talk) 10:22, 9 April 2014 (UTC)

Hi Kynde, at my first sentence I tried to explain that most images here at this comic are copies from former comics.

Including every category belonging to this comic images would result in a bottom line filling up half of the screen - finally nearly every category had to be included. --Dgbrt (talk) 20:21, 9 April 2014 (UTC)

Can you identify all this stories pics as refering to a previous commic - more than you could for any other commic? Then it should be in the explain as you say. But appart from the shark's and the ref to the previous commics title text on blowtorch I can't spot this. So please help with this. As there are almost a thousand comics I am still looking forward to read I can believe you - but would like to see the links.

It seems like there has not been added new themes for a while. In that case there would only be the 8 I have listed appart from the only three characters. (Corrected my list above to only include one Pokémon).

As the girl has a knit cap on, she seems very distinct - and is not Megan. Has she been seen before - else all pics with her is new. In that case I don't quite see your point. Kynde (talk) 22:00, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

Please do not edit former posts at the discussion page. Later adds would not make any sense to other readers. So, please keep the original and add a new one to the bottom here. --Dgbrt (talk) 22:22, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

Back to your question, I know probably all comics and the pictures are in my mind. But I don't know all the comic numbers or names. Read all the thousand missing comics and try to remember them all; that's my struggle. Maybe Google image search could help. But it's still a bunch of work to find them all. And of course, not every picture belongs to former comics. --Dgbrt (talk) 22:22, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

I see - that makes sence. I have now put all images foun into categories (I'm indeed an aprils fool and I know it... :-) Hope this makes sence and can help make an almost complete explanation. Seems liek there are not that many new pictures comming along? The themes that equals categoriews should still in my oppinion be added as categories, but I know that you disagree.

You have still not explained to me why your oppinion on this matter weighs more than others. Maybe there is a good reason (if you are a moderator of these pages?) or if others have the same oppinion - but where can I see that - so far only you comment on this issue.

I will be away on a holliday with limited computer power, so if I do not answer you for a week it is not because I'm annoyed with your answers ;-) And as you will see I have not added any categories. Best regards Kynde (talk) 02:58, 12 April 2014 (UTC)

So I wish you happy holidays. But beside of that, I'm not an admin or moderator — I'm just an active editor here looking for standards and clear explanations. A reference to a big part of all comics doesn't make any sense and doesn't explain anything at all. BTW: Try to use a dictionary at your browser, your typos above are ugly. --Dgbrt (talk) 20:19, 12 April 2014 (UTC)

It was written late one night on a tablet... Sorry :-) On another note - would you also recomend deleting all the categories of this earlier April fool's commic? 1037:_Umwelt - I would not but it may be longer than what I suggested for Lorenz! There do not seem to be any new images appearing anymore - not since before we wrote the above. Kynde (talk) 19:52, 14 May 2014 (UTC)

The comic 1037: Umwelt is different because there is a finite number of categories. Lorenz instead would probably end up with every category here, I don't think that this does make any sense. But a hidden category link could be a solution, the Lorenz page would not explode but there would be a link at Category:Comics featuring Cueball to this Aprils Fool comic. Maybe that's a solution? --Dgbrt (talk) 20:22, 14 May 2014 (UTC)

Well I do not think that the list of categories could be extended since I wrote to you first more than a month ago. There has not been found any new images so I do think Randall adds more. So it seems finite. All my suggested categories are based on what is in the images - not on what people has written when suggesting a line. Same for the Umwelt. And whi nows how many more versions of umwelt there are which are not acounted for. I do belive your fear for a long list is baseless. And the other BIG commics like 1110:_Click_and_Drag has 14 - I only suggest 11. So to be consistentwe should either delete those or add my suggestions. I think I will do that soon- it makes sence...Kynde (talk) 12:21, 16 May 2014 (UTC)

Hi. Wanted to take a crack at completing this strip, but I'm not clear on what needs to be fixed (besides the apparent Megan/Danish issue). What were you referring to when you wrote the incomplete tag? Jimmy C (talk) 15:12, 22 April 2014 (UTC)

Thanks for your hint. The tag was referring a fix, so I did remove it with some small changes. --Dgbrt (talk) 18:18, 22 April 2014 (UTC)

1359 transcript

You introduced ambiguity into it by undenting it. Now the ["???"] can appear to come from [alarm goes off] rather than [beep beep beep beep]. Good job. 141.101.89.231 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

Thanks for your hint, but the transcript looks better with only one indent unless there are similar indents at the image. The ways on the flowchart should be shown by text. So feel free to enhance that text. --Dgbrt (talk) 18:25, 25 April 2014 (UTC)

Why do you think that the transcript for Money should not include the entire text? This makes no sense at all? I did not include any details or explain, just an explain of where the text was located. This is done in numerous transcripts. I was actually ready to try to make a complete transcript over time - but you just killed the insensitive to that! Let me know exactly why I should not move it back - people may actually be interested in this transcript. Kynde (talk) 15:44, 11 June 2014 (UTC)

The transcript gives an overview about the main content, but the details would be shown twice so I think the summary by Randall is enough. I did not delete anything, it's now just at the explain section. And it's much more important to enhance that section. --Dgbrt (talk) 18:58, 11 June 2014 (UTC)

OK - I may agree partially with you - although I always considered the transcript to be of all the text, so you could understand it, even if you had trouble reading it yourself. Kynde (talk) 11:14, 13 June 2014 (UTC)

I was also considering doing a money transcript page like we have for Lorenz. Maybe the explain section could refer to that, so it would not be so incredibly long. If the headings I have made, were made in to subsections like Game consoles under dollars and Raising a child to age 17 under thousands etc. was on such a full transcript page, then each heading could be referenced from a table on the main page, with an explanation of this and that. And then if you wished to see the numbers and text, you clicked on the title of this part of the table. (Like for instance click and drag has for different parts of the comic.)Kynde (talk) 11:14, 13 June 2014 (UTC)

By the way. Where is this original transcript that I have seen people mention several times?Kynde (talk) 19:00, 13 June 2014 (UTC)

I have now made the transcript page for Money, and have finished the thousand section. The next two are much and much much larger. At least the trillions section is easy to do. I will do that next time I get some time Kynde (talk) 22:22, 13 June 2014 (UTC)

You win

It looks like we have been fighting each other. I mean no offence, but most of the time the explanations you replace of mine are by no means better, I am sorry for the issues with spelling I have introduced, but come on, I restructured the entire articles. I know you hate spelling errors, but i hate incorrect over wordy and vague explanations. As my additions do not seem welcome by you (even though they are a vast improvement) I will bow out gracefully and let you do all the work. I am sure you see this as no loss, and less work for you cleaning up after me, but honestly look at how you changed "1364: Like I'm Five" and say it is better? You win, you get more work. In truth I was able to resolve all the issues on the incomplete tags for over 5 pages in 2 days. English is my first BTW, so I can tell if something is easy enough to understand. 108.162.217.89 22:38, 9 August 2014 (UTC)

Dgbrt, I'm quite sure I said a while back that you should hold back from making language edits. Also, read before you delete hunks of text. Davidy²²[talk] 03:06, 10 August 2014 (UTC)

@108.162.217.89: I did'n win, I'm more a loser here. If there are any issues here talk to me in detail at that specific page.

@Davidy22: I do not delete essentials and I really do read it — but an explain still has to focus on the comic. This is not always the case.

DgbrtBOT

Did you receive code from Davidy22 regarding DgbrtBOT? He said he was going to send you a fix so that it would begin to categorize the images it uploads with each new comic image.

Also, is there any chance of using the bot to categorize some other images? For example, virtually all of the ones used by 1190: Time need one. Oneforfortytwo (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

I screwed up and merged it into the last pending push by accident. There should be two commits under it; the second one is the one you want. Davidy²²[talk] 09:50, 13 August 2014 (UTC)

My Bot can't do everything. Categorizing images is not easy for a bot — I can't see an issue on this. Please help me to understand. My bot can do everything but I'm still trying to be at the safe side; it's running every M/W/T while I'm sometimes not online. So any advice is welcome. But I still do not understand this issue, sorry. --Dgbrt (talk) 21:31, 13 August 2014 (UTC)

Since the picture upload today for 1409: Query did fail this add is deactivated. And I got only an "Error code 3" which means: "An error returned by the MediaWiki API". I will do some tests to figure out the reason for this mishap. --Dgbrt (talk) 20:21, 18 August 2014 (UTC)

Tools

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